It was the summer of 1986.
I had just finished my junior year in high school.
Having grown up in a home that went to church, but in which Christian worship was not a daily part of our lives.
Having gone through a confirmation process where I filled out a statement of faith without knowing any of what I really wrote.
And submitted it so that I could be brought in as a member of the church that our family went to.
Having wandered out on a youth group retreat one night and looking up at the stars and wondered if maybe there was a God.
And wondering if maybe there was something to this whole thing.
But never getting an answer until during my sophomore and junior year I met Bill and Becky and other friends who knew Jesus.
And I didn't like their Jesus very much, but I liked them.
And I saw that they had something that was to me irresistibly attractive.
And so I kept hanging out with them and I kept asking questions.
And it brought me to this summer.
This summer where my friend went off across the sea and left me with Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis.
And in that time as I read through this book, I saw who Jesus was for the first time.
And C.S. Lewis walked through the argument that he puts forth in that book.
I found myself being compelled by it.
And I got to the end.
And I remember thinking, if this is true, what am I going to do with it?
I could no longer think, I wonder if there might be something to this.
Now I knew something.
Now I knew something about who Jesus was.
I had been confronted with him.
And I knew that I needed to respond.
Friends, this morning as we continue in our series in the book of Luke, we will find a similar encounter with the Apostle Peter and some of his friends.
As they encountered Jesus and saw him, perhaps for the first time, with real eyes.
So we're looking at the Gospel of Luke.
If you want to turn there, I think it's page 860 in your pew Bible.
Is that right?
Yes?
Good.
As we turn there, let me just remind us of where we are.
We're doing a series this winter on who is this Jesus.
Looking at Luke chapter 4 through chapter 8.
If you remember, we started a couple weeks ago hearing about Jesus as he walked into the synagogue.
And he sat down and he read the words from Isaiah.
Isaiah, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind.
To set at liberty those who are oppressed.
And to proclaim the day of the Lord's favor.
And then having read this, he sat down and he said, today it is fulfilled.
What he was basically saying is, now that I am here.
And then as we've seen, after that he went out and he did ministry.
And he did it with a kind of authority.
Authority over spiritual forces of darkness.
Authority over physical sickness that would cause to destroy.
Destroy.
And in all of these things it arouses in our hearts the question, who is this one?
And that brings us to our text this morning.
Luke chapter 5.
We're going to look at verses 1 through 11.
So please read along with me.
On one occasion, while the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, he was standing by the lake of Gennesaret.
And he saw two boats by the lake.
But the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets.
Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon's, he asked him to put out a little from the land.
And he sat down and taught the people from the boat.
And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.
And Simon answered, Master, we toiled all night and took nothing.
But at your word, I will let down the nets.
And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish.
And their nets were breaking.
They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them.
And they came and filled both the boats so that they began to sink.
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me.
For I am a sinful man, O Lord.
For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken.
And so also were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon.
And Jesus said to Simon, Do not be afraid.
From now on, you will be catching men.
And when they had brought their boats to land, they left everything and followed him.
Let's pray together.
Lord, we thank you for your word.
And we thank you that in it you reveal yourself to us.
Lord, that it is not simply an instruction book for us on how to live.
But it is a book about you that we might see you clearly and know you rightly.
And respond in love and worship and obedience.
God, what a precious gift it is that you have given us your word.
So that we might know what kind of a God you truly are.
And Lord, as we look at this word this morning, I pray for receptive hearts.
Lord, for eyes that are ready to see you anew, afresh, or maybe for the first time.
Lord, I pray that you might use me.
Lord, that my words would be useful in lifting up Jesus in our midst.
That we might see him and respond.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Well, friends, as we look at this story, one of the fun things about doing the Gospels is that they're stories.
And by that I don't mean they're fictional.
By that I mean they're narrative.
Which means that the way that God is telling truth is telling it through an account of what happened.
And so what we're going to do is we're going to look at this.
And instead of giving you an outline of here are the three theses that Luke wants you to understand.
What I want you to see is there are three movements in this drama.
There are three actions that happen or three places that three three sections of this of this passage that capture us and grip us and teach us a bit about what is going on.
We're going to see first we're going to see Jesus unveiled.
And secondly, we're going to see Peter undone.
And third, we are going to see Jesus calling for us to follow.
So let's look at those three movements and see what they have for us this morning.
First of all, Jesus unveiled in the glory of the catch.
This is in verses 1 through 7.
And as you look at this, I want you to sit by the Sea of Galilee.
This Gennesaret is just a section of shoreline along the Sea of Galilee.
Luke uses a different word to tell you.
It's the same familiar place of Galilee.
So Jesus is ministering up north in Israel.
He's collected a group of people.
They've heard about what he's doing.
They've heard about his teaching with authority.
And they've gathered along to do it.
I want you to notice too that Luke says on one occasion.
He's not saying this is an account of everything Jesus did.
And he's not even saying, oh, and this is what happened right after what happened at the end of chapter 4.
He's just saying, oh, let me tell you something else about what Jesus was doing during this time.
And he was gathered in this.
And the crowd became so big that they were pressing in on him.
And he saw the crowd growing.
And he thought, how do I love them?
They've come here to hear the words that I have to say to them.
And I want them to do that.
So we love them enough to look for a solution.
And lo and behold, there it was, two fishing boats by the water.
The fishermen, having fished all night, were now out of their boats,
tending to their nets at the end of a long night.
And he said to the fishermen, hey, can I use your boat?
And so they pushed out from shore.
And the boat became his pulpit.
And the water became his microphone amplification as he preached to a large crowd.
But notice that for Luke, this isn't the point today.
It is the context in which Jesus was doing something else.
It's simply the setup.
Because in verse 4 then, we begin to see the story really take shape.
Because having then sat down as teachers would do and taught the people,
when he was done teaching, he then turned to Peter and said,
Peter, put out into the deep and put your nets down.
Now, Peter would have been pretty taken aback by this for a number of reasons.
One, Jesus was a carpenter, not a fisherman.
Or maybe Jesus was an itinerant religious teacher.
But he still didn't know anything about fishing.
And anyone who knows anything about fishing knows that if you've fished all night
and you haven't caught anything,
you don't go out in the middle of the day to try again.
Because the fish aren't out in the middle of the day.
That's why fishermen always fish at dawn and dusk.
They go out in the right times of day.
And this was the wrong time of day.
As one commentator said,
we need not ask what goes through the mind of a professional fisherman
in a foul mood when a non-fisherman orders him to do again in bad conditions
what he has already tried and failed to do in good conditions.
But interestingly, with all of that resistance,
Peter still responds.
He knows something of Jesus.
He's heard the teaching, maybe, as he's been mending the nets.
Maybe, likely, the account of his healing of his mother had happened
as it was reported in chapter 4.
He knew something of him.
He called him master.
It's an honorary term, like, of teacher or one who deserves honor.
He said,
this is the dumbest thing in the world,
but all right, I'll try it.
I'll try it.
Peter allowed Jesus to invade
an inappropriate place in his life.
Peter may have looked at him and said,
he's a great teacher.
He maybe even, he healed my mother.
That seems like a good place for Jesus to stay in my life.
Now Jesus has insinuated himself into the place of Peter's expertise,
the place of his greatest ability.
Peter's doubtful, but he gives him a chance.
I want to stop for a minute.
I want you to think about your own life.
Jesus walks into your lab.
Why don't you try this?
I couldn't even begin to, like, give you technical terms.
Titrate this.
Spin this.
I don't even know.
I was an history major.
You know what I mean.
Jesus walks into your homeschooling.
Maybe you should do this with your kids.
He invites you into your romantic life.
He goes along on the date.
Follows you into your bedroom.
How about this?
He walks with you down the hall in your high school.
Greeting your friends.
Sitting with you in the lunchroom.
How do you respond?
Master, we fished all night.
We didn't catch anything.
But since you ask, we'll do it.
I'll bet we, he wouldn't get master out of us most of the time.
More like the question.
Jesus, what do you have to do with this part of my life?
This isn't where you belong.
In those places of our greatest expertise.
When we think we're in control, and when we think God really doesn't know what he's doing
or what he's up to, we resist him, and we don't see him as he truly is.
But Peter gave him a doubtful chance.
And look with me at verse 6 and 7.
Luke tells us in excruciating detail to make sure we don't miss what happened.
They enclosed a large number of fish.
And their nets were breaking.
That meant that the weight was greater than what those nets were built to catch.
And so they called their friend over in the other boat.
And they put the fish in the boat.
And these boats that were made to fish, made to hold fish, were sinking.
Because the catch was so great.
This is a fisherman's tail beyond belief.
It was this big!
But it really was.
It wasn't a fiction.
And joy turns into panic.
But it's a gleeful panic.
What are we going to do?
And notice this too.
When Jesus invades Peter's area of expertise,
he doesn't do it flippantly.
It's not just a random display of power.
For the fun of it.
He actually graciously provides for Peter the thing that he most needed and didn't have on his own.
He blessed Peter and the other fishermen with the catch that they could not catch on their own.
So Jesus' display of power was not simply asserting himself to say,
I'm better than you.
Or I'm bigger than you.
Or I'm greater than you.
Although all of those things, as we will see, are true.
But he's saying, don't you see how much I love you?
That I will use all of my greatness for your good.
And so, with Peter, we must look at this Jesus again with new eyes.
Who is this man?
Suddenly the compartments come down.
It's running through Peter's head.
Who is he?
What has he just done?
He's the creator who knows the fish.
Whether he commanded them to jump into the nets or whether he just knew where they were at the wrong time of day,
he's the one who rules over creation.
He's the almighty provider who's able at the snap of his finger with what humanly seems like an irrational request,
provide the thing that we most need.
He is the sovereign over all.
He is the Holy One of God.
Who is he?
This must be God.
Not just a teacher.
Not just a helpful man who might tell me something useful about my spiritual life.
But someone who is greater than all.
This must be God.
The analogy is, if Jesus can rule in the area of my greatest expertise,
then doesn't he have a claim to rule over all?
If Jesus can do this in the place where I'm the professional,
then doesn't Jesus make me accountable to him in everything?
That I do.
And if that request is so surprising and the response so unbelievable,
then the second thing that happens in this story is additionally so surprising.
Because, as we see moving on to verses 8 through 10,
we see our second movement.
Because we see Peter, Simon Peter, responding.
And his response is surprising.
What we see is him undone.
Look with me again at verse 8.
When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees,
saying,
Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.
With echoes of the Isaiah passage that we read further,
when Isaiah encountered the glory of God
and fell down before him and says,
Woe is me.
Peter falls down before Jesus.
And he says three things.
First thing he says is,
Depart from me.
This is not a Mike Myers,
I'm not worthy.
There's no tongue in cheek.
It's not even just awe and wonder.
You are bigger than me.
But what it is,
is in this common pattern
that we see over and over in the scriptures,
when people encounter God himself,
when people encounter messengers of the God Most High,
they fall down on their faces.
And their beginning start is,
Oh Lord, I can't handle this.
It's too much.
Depart from me,
for I am afraid that I might die in your presence.
Depart from me,
for I am fearful that I am not worthy to be before you.
I cannot stand in your presence.
It would be like the present
who, hearing a surprising knock at the door,
finds the king standing at the doorstep saying,
May I come in and eat?
No, I'm not worthy.
My table is not clean.
My food is not good enough.
I have nothing to offer what you really deserve.
You must be mistaken, Lord.
It must be another house you're looking for.
I think that's what Peter is saying
when he says,
Depart from me, Lord.
He's expressing this fear.
Then the second thing,
For I am a sinful man.
Jesus hasn't said anything about sin.
We haven't heard anything about righteousness,
about the law,
about doing right and wrong.
None of that has happened.
How did Peter get here?
This doesn't make any sense, does it?
Spurgeon helpfully says this about it.
I do not doubt that in the sermon which Christ delivered,
there was such a clear declaration of the holiness of God
that Peter felt himself unveiled,
discovered, his heart laid bare.
And now came the finishing stroke.
The one who had done this could also rule the fishes of the sea.
He must therefore be God.
And if it was to God that all the defects and evils of Peter's heart
had been revealed and thoroughly known,
and almost fearing,
with a kind of inarticulate cry of alarm
because the criminal was in the presence of the judge,
the polluted in the presence of the immaculate,
Peter says,
Depart from me,
for I am a sinful man,
O Lord.
When we find ourselves in the presence of God,
we find ourselves in the presence of all of Him.
And in His perfect power,
in His perfect createrness that rules over all things,
He is also the perfect moral one.
And in His greatness,
we see our smallness.
In His perfection,
we see our sinfulness.
In His power,
we see our weakness.
And Peter confesses it.
For I am a sinful man.
I cannot stand before your holiness.
I think it's possible
that part of what Peter recognized
in that moment was,
I didn't really think,
Jesus,
that you knew anything about fishing.
And so I had you over here
in this nice little compartment
in my life.
And you've now blown that up.
And I've recognized
how sinful that is.
Because if you are God over all,
then you are God over me.
And I am a sinful man
for not seeing your glory
and responding rightly.
Depart from me
for I am a sinful man,
O Lord.
This is the final recognition.
He called him earlier,
Master,
you're one who deserves honor.
But now he says,
you are Lord.
And fascinatingly,
if you have the time,
go back and read Luke 1-3
and see the almost 30 times
when the writer Luke
uses the word Lord.
And in all of those contexts,
it is the Lord God Almighty,
the Lord who rules over,
the Lord of Israel,
the Lord of the promises
of the Old Testament,
the Lord who brings life
to a virgin womb,
the Lord who appears
and opens barren Elizabeth,
the Lord who has shown favor
to those who don't deserve favor.
It is the sovereign good Lord.
And Peter now uses this term
on his lips,
no longer master,
but Lord.
Peter's experienced
both his awesome power
and greatness
and his gracious goodness.
And in this,
he is undone.
He's forgotten about the fish.
He fell down in the boat
at Jesus' knees.
Suddenly,
as he sees what Jesus has done,
Jesus now fills
the whole screen of his life.
Everything that he's concerned about
now fades.
Only Jesus is there.
Friends,
I wonder if Jesus has undone you.
this morning.
I wonder if you've seen him
as he really is.
If he's opened your eyes
to see him as the creator
to whom you're accountable,
as the holy one
whose moral perfection exposes
our sin
and the ugliness of our hearts,
his gracious love for us,
that shows us how ungrateful
and selfish we really are,
his sovereign goodness
that shows us how often we grasp
for control,
for power,
and our own lives.
And our own lives.
Have you seen him
as he really is?
Has he undone you?
When he undoes you,
there's no more pretense.
There's no more excuses.
There's no more expertise
to fall back on
in parts of our lives.
We are laid bare before him
when he undoes us.
We realize we have no basis
to claim rightness before him.
We have no merit
that we might be commended to him.
We have no goodness to cling to
and no self to exalt before him.
We see him and we are undone
because he is greater.
Because he is God.
Maybe you have been a Christian
for a long time.
Maybe you grew up
reading these stories
and thinking,
oh yeah, I know that one.
That's all about,
we will get to the end
about following Jesus.
And I know the song,
I have decided to follow Jesus.
You know,
or I am sure there are other songs
about the fishermen and stuff.
But I did not grow up in that as much
so I do not know the songs.
But maybe you have grown up
in that kind of a background.
And you know those stories from heart.
And you are sort of like,
yeah, yeah, yeah,
we have done this a lot.
I know that.
But I wonder if Jesus
has become too familiar to you.
I wonder if the Jesus of this story
has been lost to you
under the guise of a nice, pleasant Jesus
who wants good for you in your life.
And yeah, he died on the cross for your sins.
And that is good.
And you know,
he can sort of take care of that part of your life
and let you go on your merry way.
I wonder if this morning
you would see him afresh.
If you would see him with new eyes
and see him in his glory
as he says,
I am Lord of all.
I am the giver of life.
I am the one who calls you.
Maybe some of you are like me
and you've grown up in church
and you've known about Jesus,
but you've never really encountered him
and you've never really seen him this way ever.
Or maybe you're here
because through God's gracious work in your life,
you're wondering
whether there might be something to this Christianity.
Maybe like me,
you have a friend
who believes this stuff
and you're like,
what is that all about?
I gotta figure that out.
Maybe you're here this morning wondering,
who is this Jesus?
Jesus.
Whatever it is,
whatever your situation is,
I pray this morning
that as you see him
that you would be undone.
I pray this morning
that you would encounter him.
Friends, when I encountered him,
it was not because God intervened in some,
he didn't suddenly make me win
the lacrosse championship
or make me the star of the school play
or give me a straight egg average
or whatever.
He didn't come in
and invade my areas of expertise.
But through the words of my friends
and through the words of C.S. Lewis
and through my own time
actually reading parts of the Bible,
I encountered him
and saw who he was
and God opened my eyes
to see him
for the first time.
So friends,
wherever you are this morning,
I pray,
I pray that you would see him.
And if you're sitting there
and you know
I haven't been undone by Jesus,
I don't even know this Jesus,
friends,
this is where we look.
This is where you will find him.
Keep reading,
keep looking,
come talk to me,
talk to your friend
who brought you,
talk to your friend
who you've known
for 30 years
as you've gone to church together
and marvel again
at who Jesus is.
Be undone by him.
So Jesus unveils himself
in his glory.
Peter and his friends
and we are undone
as we see him,
as he really is.
And then Jesus responds
to us again
as he does to Peter
and he gives this call.
Look with me again.
Verse 10.
Second half.
And Jesus said to Simon,
don't be afraid.
That is,
I haven't come to destroy you.
I'm not going to simply
wipe you out
though your sin is real
and though your unworthiness
is right.
No,
I've come to do something else.
You see,
it's never been about the fish.
The beginning
and the end of the story
tell us that
the fish has just been a sign
and a symbol
and an unveiling
of the person.
Jesus says,
no,
I'm not going to run
from you,
Peter.
Instead,
I'm going to call you.
I'm going to call you
to follow me.
He doesn't say,
okay,
now you've understood me better.
Go back and do your thing
and we'll go on
and do our thing.
I'll go teach
and you go fish
and we'll be fine.
Isn't that nice?
Jesus doesn't say that.
He says,
no,
I've come to radically
reorient your life.
There's a place
for you to fish.
But what I want you to do
is I want you to begin
to see what I'm about
and to reorient your life
around me
and what my purposes
are in the world
and what my glory
is all about.
He says,
no longer will you fish
for those things
in the lake
but you will fish
for the souls
of men and women.
He'll say,
come follow me
because this is what I'm about.
Don't you see?
This is my teaching ministry
that you've seen.
The net that I throw out
is the net
of the good news
of the kingdom of God
and the gospel.
And the catch that I get
is not
flapping little fish
but it's the souls
of men and women
cast over the crowds.
This is the call
that Jesus gives to them.
He says,
Peter,
you are not undone.
I am now capturing you
and calling you
in fact
into a greater thing
than what you've ever done.
And as you are undone
from all these little things
that consumed your lives
and dominated your attention,
now I want you
to reorient those things
around me
and the things
that I am about.
He wants to say,
no longer is fishing
the purpose of your life.
No longer is fishing
your security.
No longer is fishing
your capital.
No longer is being a fisherman
your identity.
Jesus is Lord of all,
the fish and the fishermen.
And he has come to say,
I now,
as I call you
to follow me,
I will be for you
your security,
your capital,
your identity,
your purpose
in life.
Jesus is saying,
I am not the moon
that simply reflects light
on you at the night,
but I am the sun
around which you
and the planets
of your life
are meant to orbit.
I am meant to be
and call you
to make me
the gravitational center
of what you are
and who you are.
Because don't you see
how easy it is for us
to not do that?
How easy it is for us
to say,
yeah, Jesus,
we'll give you some of it,
but not this stuff.
You can't touch this.
This is mine.
This is where I'm in charge.
This is where I exalt myself.
This is where I'm,
I'm the one
who knows what's going on.
Jesus says,
no,
I'm the Lord of everything.
Even your fishing.
And now look,
let's make sure
we get this right.
Jesus doesn't call
all Christians
to forsake
every other vocation
to become a minister.
In case you're confused
by that,
that's not what
he's saying here.
Right?
Not everyone is called
to literally leave
their boats
and their nets.
God called these men
in a very special way
to play a special role.
They were his disciples
who went with him
and through them
he then shared
and spread
the ministry
that he was called to
of proclaiming the word
and bringing
the kingdom of God
to this world.
They were the beginning
of the church
which was the thing
that he was birthing
through his ministry.
And yes,
he called them
to leave their nets
and their fish
and everything
to follow him.
But practically
for us,
some of you
are going to be called
to leave
all the security,
all the identity,
all the capital,
and all the expertise
that you have
in your career
and to abandon
all of those things
to Jesus' hand
and then to go back
and to do
the very same thing.
And I know some of you,
that's a really hard road
to walk.
I don't know
if you ever think about it
but I sit up here sometimes
and I think,
I have the easy life.
I get to do this
all day,
every day.
This is my joy
that this is my vocation.
Some of you
have a hard road
to walk
in what you do.
Having to live out
making Jesus
the center of your life
as a carpenter
or a fisherman,
as a postdoc
or a mom,
as a teacher,
as an executive,
as a student,
as simply a citizen
in this world.
Whatever you do,
the call here
is to reorient
your life around Jesus
and to live
for Him
and to follow Him
in His work.
And yes,
that does mean
that in your workplace
you are called
to carry out
His mission
which is to love
people in His name
and to proclaim
the good news
that Jesus has come.
You are called
to do that
wherever you are
and whatever you do.
but He doesn't mean
that you have to
leave your vocation
and your work
but He does mean
reorient your life.
Make me the center.
See who I am.
And this is what
I want you to see,
friends,
is that this isn't
a command
try harder,
try harder
to be a better Christian.
Be more committed
to being more committed.
no,
that's not it.
Because you see,
friends,
this story helps us see
the very dynamics
of the gospel itself.
Jesus reveals Himself
in His glory.
And friends,
you know that
in the gospel of Luke,
this section,
chapter 4 through 9,
is a setup.
It started with
this quotation
from Isaiah
about Jesus has come
and the kingdom has come
and then there's
this display of it
in chapters 4 through 9.
This is what it looks like.
Jesus is Lord over this.
Jesus is Lord over that.
Jesus showing the character
of God's kingdom
where He's setting
the captives free
and bringing freedom
to those who are oppressed
and bringing sight
to the blind.
And He does all these things.
And then in chapter 9
in Luke,
Jesus turns
and He sets His face
towards Jerusalem.
And as He goes
to Jerusalem,
He encounters
increasing resistance.
People hate Him
for His message.
And He has resisted
more and more.
And Luke structures
the whole gospel
to lead us
to the end chapters
where we see Jesus
in the fullness
of His glory.
In the greatest,
greatest expression
of His sovereign power
and His love for us.
as He lays down
His life for us.
As He offers Himself
up in our place
because we are sinful men
and ought to be destroyed
by a holy God.
Yet Jesus says,
no, I will take that place
and I will suffer
the destruction
that your sins deserve.
And I will hang
on that cross
in your place
because I love you
and because I have come
to redeem you,
to make you my own.
And He died
and He rose again
to show His power
even over sin
and death
to show that
His redemption
is real
and one day
will be complete
as He lives it out.
As He comes one day
to return
to make it all right.
friends,
when we see
this Jesus,
when this Jesus
is unveiled
before our eyes,
we are able both
like Peter
to fall at His knees
and say,
woe is me,
I am undone
before you
and yet we are able
then to rise
at His gracious call
and say,
I will follow you
and I will leave
everything
because I have seen
how great you are.
Why would I want
to follow anything else?
Why would I want
to spend my life
glorifying anything else
other than the thing
that you are
because you are
the best
and the greatest thing
I have ever encountered?
Lord,
so friends,
it's not about us
working harder
to work harder
or being more committed
to being more committed
but it's about us
seeing Jesus
as He really is
because when we see
Him like that,
He will do this work
in us.
He will undo us
and convict us
of sin.
He will show us
the areas
where we have not
given Him
the Lordship
of our lives.
He will bring us
faith
when we don't
have faith.
He will do
these things
when we see
Him rightly.
So friends,
the call
to Peter
is a call
to us.
Will you
follow me?
With all that
that means
from this passage,
we talked
about it before,
some of you,
this may be
a call
for the first time
that you need
to respond to.
I've never
followed Him.
I've never
seen Him
like that.
I've never
understood
what He did
for me.
I've never
understood
who He
really is.
Friends,
today He
calls you.
Follow me.
Some of you
have lived
your life
about Him
or knowing
Him
for a long
time.
But maybe
today He's
put a finger
on a part
of your life
that He's
invaded.
with His
Lordship
and His
call to
leave everything
and to
follow Him.
Maybe you
need to
surrender
those areas
to Him
and reaffirm
that you
will follow
Him.
No turning
back.
No turning
back.
We don't
usually do
this in this
church,
but I'm
actually going
to ask the
worship team
to come in.
I want to
give you
just a
brief moment
to reflect
on what
we've heard
this morning,
to think
about this,
to pray,
God,
will you
help me?
To pray,
God,
will you
show me
yourself?
Will you
make my
eyes see
who you
are?
Maybe you
already hear
the Holy
Spirit
whispering to
you
how you
need to
respond to
Him this
morning.
So as the
musicians begin
to play,
I'm just
going to
give you
just a
moment here
to reflect,
to pray,
and then
we'll respond
by singing,
singing a
song of
recognition
that Jesus
is worthy
to follow
Him.
So why
don't we
bow our
heads and
just take a
moment together.
song of
Their
history
as
fought
our
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Thank you.
As we continue, maybe the Lord wants you to sit and just to continue to reflect, but if not, maybe you can stand.
We're going to sing crown him with many crowns, which lifts up who Jesus is and declares that he is worthy of our response of following him and worshiping him.
So stand as you will and let's sing together.